Brad Stevens Thread

[Parliament10]

What cha gonna do (with the do-do), Boy Wonder?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2oDDv9mXek[/youtube]




http://hardwoodparoxysm.com/2015/10/08/concerning-coaches-brad-stevens-for-president-2016/
Posted on October 8, 2015 by Austin Peters

When Brad Stevens agreed to join the Boston Celtics as their head coach a few summers ago, it caught everyone off guard. Stevens had built a Butler University basketball program to a perennial contender, going to two straight national championship games and being the reason Butler moved to the bigger, better Big East conference. if Stevens were to leave Butler, one would’ve thought that it would only have been for one of the bluest of bloods in college basketball, not one of the most historic franchises in NBA history.

Yet the opportunity presented itself, Stevens jumped at the chance, and here we are now in season three of the rebuild that started with the trading of stars Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in 2013. Year one was a mighty struggle for Stevens; devoid of talent and a star with Rajon Rondo out for the year, the Celtics finished a brutal 25-57. Last season was a different story, however. Despite trading away their two perceived best players in Rondo and Jeff Green, the Celtics still competed and won in spite of them lacking a true go-to player. Boston ended up making the playoffs, finishing seventh in the Eastern Conference at 40-42. While the Eastern Conference may be a lot less talented than the Western Conference, it is still remarkable that this Celtics team made the playoffs given their circumstances and talent across the roster....

Boston will again have several new faces on their roster for 2015-16, and there is always the chance that they will make more trades. There shouldn’t be any fear, however. Brad Stevens has already established himself as one of the best coaches in the league and it will be interesting to see how he changes and adapts to the personnel of this version of the Celtics. There is no doubt that any step in the next direction of the rebuild begins with coach Stevens.

There's a lot of things that could be said. Blame? Players? General Manager?
You've been dealt a shaky hand, Coach. But, you Knew that coming in.

You got Lemons, at 19-18, with 45 games left.
You're the Coach. This is Your Ship.

What Cha Gonna Do?

[Edug27]

He's doing everything he can do at the moment. He's getting this mediocre bunch to overachieve. The ball is in Danny's court now.

[BRUNiNHO91]

Play the KIDS man! You're making us watch this GARBAGE every night, with this **** **** vets and we aren't even better than the Knicks! BOO!

[VeryMuchWoke]

I do somewhat blame Stevens for us not "soft tanking" last year. It cost us Winslow. On the other hand soft-tanking might have cost us Crowder, and it's a fairly close call, at least for me, between Crowder/Rozier and Winslow. It's a pretty easy call if tanking would have also cost us Stevens.

If we can get a big upgrade we should do it, but if we can't I think we should take the opportunity to soft-tank this year. Develop Rozier/Mickey/Hunter (or at least play them to see what we have). With the sheer number of picks we have it's important to know who we really want to keep going forward. For this reason we should stop giving minutes to Lee/Jerebko/Turner and other guys that aren't a part of the future. Of course that's all if Ainge can't manage to consolidate at the deadline.

[celticfan42487]

What he's ganna do? Play his average players, and return average results. + or - .500 by 5 games. And anywhere from 10th - 7th in the East if the division keeps up it's great play in the first half of the season.

Yawn. Oh yeah then lose in the first round of the playoffs.

Let's hope the Brooklyn pick drops a lucky #1 pick for us.

[Tenbomber]

return average results. ...... anywhere from 10th - 7th in the East if the division keeps up it's great play in the first half of the season..

I think the East has generally overachieved up until this point...I expect any record north of.500 to be good enough to get a playoff spot.... The West has been winning the majority of the east-west battles of late...

I think everyone is searching for player improvements and there is allot of showcasing going on with most of the second tier....

You will likely see other teams have the same sort of bad spells that we have experienced lately...

They all figure the same thing...keep close enough to be able to close post trade deadline on a positive note....and in the meantime play some folks with an eye on moving them for a possible upgrade or two....I expect Danny will be fairly active buying or selling...

[Green89]

He can start by giving Mickey some minutes!

[Tenbomber]

He can start by giving Mickey some minutes!

He may be hiding him?...who knows?

Sure, I think we would all like to see if what he's been able to do for the Red Claws can translate to that next step....but that, of course, is one huge step!

[Edug27]

He can start by giving Mickey some minutes!

He may be hiding him?...who knows?

Sure, I think we would all like to see if what he's been able to do for the Red Claws can translate to that next step....but that, of course, is one huge step!

Hiding a second rd pick? From who? Think we are overthinking it.

[Green89]

Looking at the next dozen or so games, we have a great chance to go back on some winning streaks and get back to 4-5 games over .500 again. The last time we lost 3 in a row, we won 4 in a row. I can see that happening again. We start with the Knicks, get some payback against Indiana for the two earlier losses. Beat up the Phoenix tankers, and then kick Washington again while they're down.

Brad has to iron out the rotation issues, though. The players and fans are getting pretty frustrated. He has to play his go to guys more often and at the right times. Crowder only played 30 minutes in the Memphis loss, and Brad kept him out of the 2nd quarter until the 4 minute mark. That's too long to wait for one of your best players to return. IT and Crowder need to be back in the 2nd quarter with 6-7 minutes to go, not 4-5 minutes. No other coach in the league waits this long with their best players and starters coming back. Superstars take a short breather in the 2nd and are usually back in by the 7 minute mark.

We don't have stars, but Brad has to utilize his two best players better.

[Tenbomber]

He can start by giving Mickey some minutes!

He may be hiding him?...who knows?

Sure, I think we would all like to see if what he's been able to do for the Red Claws can translate to that next step....but that, of course, is one huge step!

Hiding a second rd pick? From who? Think we are overthinking it.

Clubs scout "D" league games regularly....and anyone with PC can watch a player's progress....They know who's leading the league in certain categories.....

Certainly anyone considering a trade with the C's might ask for a low risk throw -in like Mikey to seal a deal on another player....

I'm sure if Danny has any plans for that young fella, he would want to try and keep him out of the limelight so to speak...

[Tenbomber]

Looking at the next dozen or so games, we have a great chance to go back on some winning streaks and get back to 4-5 games over .500 again. The last time we lost 3 in a row, we won 4 in a row. I can see that happening again. We start with the Knicks, get some payback against Indiana for the two earlier losses. Beat up the Phoenix tankers, and then kick Washington again while they're down.

Brad has to iron out the rotation issues, though. The players and fans are getting pretty frustrated. He has to play his go to guys more often and at the right times. Crowder only played 30 minutes in the Memphis loss, and Brad kept him out of the 2nd quarter until the 4 minute mark. That's too long to wait for one of your best players to return. IT and Crowder need to be back in the 2nd quarter with 6-7 minutes to go, not 4-5 minutes. No other coach in the league waits this long with their best players and starters coming back. Superstars take a short breather in the 2nd and are usually back in by the 7 minute mark.

We don't have stars, but Brad has to utilize his two best players better.

I noticed a similar trend last year before the All Star break...And many of us here kinda asked for this to happen when we beg to play our young players more minutes....

I did find it curious though that Brad played Lee in that third quarter bust...but that may have had to do with trying to match-up the veteran on Gasol?..... And that may have been the bigger mistake?

I think the way to beat the Grizz is to try to run them out of the gym....Not sure why we just didn't do that with all of the young players?

Perhaps, when these younger guys get older, they will be able to turn the jets on easier? It's like, right now, Brad was trying to get them ready for the slower pace of playoff basketball.....I don't know?

When you toss away regular season games after having big leads, they tend to bite you in the butt later on....We just got too careless....

[SuperDeluxe]

Brad's rotations have suddenly become mind-boggling considering that in many cases they seem to go against what the analytics say. We were wondering the same thing about Doc Rivers' rotations back in 2007 before the KG trade, without the analytics (I'm not saying that a trade as big as the KG one is going to happen; i'm just saying that Brad's is a delicate balancing act between getting results, developing the younger players, and showcasing the ones that Danny is considering trading.)

[ConstableGeneva]

There's a disconnect between FO long-term big picture goals and coaches shorter-term goals right from the get-go. Ainge certainly hasn't made Stevens's job easy his first three years. Hope it all gets sorted out before the trade deadline. Until then, I can't judge Stevens harshly for his rotation decisions (except for when I lose my **** during games as our lead gets whittled down due to bench play).

[31to6]

He may be hiding him?...who knows?

Sure, I think we would all like to see if what he's been able to do for the Red Claws can translate to that next step....but that, of course, is one huge step!

Hiding a second rd pick? From who? Think we are overthinking it.

Clubs scout "D" league games regularly....and anyone with PC can watch a player's progress....They know who's leading the league in certain categories.....

Certainly anyone considering a trade with the C's might ask for a low risk throw -in like Mikey to seal a deal on another player....

I'm sure if Danny has any plans for that young fella, he would want to try and keep him out of the limelight so to speak...

I've yet to understand this reasoning. This isn't 'go fish' - just because a team asks you for a player in a trade, you don't have to trade them that player.

Like Darren and others say, Brad is following orders to play certain guys. Most of the time. Except when he doesn't. And the orders probably aren't all that clear, or important, in the long run. Fun times.

[return2glory]

Play the KIDS man! You're making us watch this GARBAGE every night, with this **** **** vets and we aren't even better than the Knicks! BOO!

Is not that easy to say play the kids and the issue is resolved. If Ainge trusted the guys he drafted, he wouldn't have to go get Lee and Amir and resign Jerebko.

Ainge got Lee to hopefully include him in a trade. Brad can't just sit him.

Also Ainge assembled this unit of mediocre players. Other than IT, everyone of our guys at this moment are average at best. Ainge didn't do coach Stevens any favors with this roster.

A lot of people here kept saying play the kids but 80% of our roster is made of of kids to some degree.

We aren't the Lakers, Sixers, Nets, etc who are playing for nothing. We made the playoffs last year and are now expected to make the playoffs again. It's Ainge's job at this point to make a big trade to improve the overall talent of this team.

Coach Pop would have a hard time coaching this team to a .500 mark.

[GuyClinch]

This is one of those Celtics teams that screwing around with the lineup won't make your team great. Sometimes your team just isn't that talent. Pick most any random team in the 90s - and that's what was going on with the Celtics. God couldn't coach this team to 60 wins..

[BRUNiNHO91]

Play the KIDS man! You're making us watch this GARBAGE every night, with this **** **** vets and we aren't even better than the Knicks! BOO!

Is not that easy to say play the kids and the issue is resolved. If Ainge trusted the guys he drafted, he wouldn't have to go get Lee and Amir and resign Jerebko.

Ainge got Lee to hopefully include him in a trade. Brad can't just sit him.

Also Ainge assembled this unit of mediocre players. Other than IT, everyone of our guys at this moment are average at best. Ainge didn't do coach Stevens any favors with this roster.

A lot of people here kept saying play the kids but 80% of our roster is made of of kids to some degree.

We aren't the Lakers, Sixers, Nets, etc who are playing for nothing. We made the playoffs last year and are now expected to make the playoffs again. It's Ainge's job at this point to make a big trade to improve the overall talent of this team.

Coach Pop would have a hard time coaching this team to a .500 mark.

So Ainge got those guys because he didn't trust the rookies? What?

It's super easy. He gets up and says 'Zeller and Lee your inactive today'. Mickey and Rozier you're in. When it comes to the substitutions, he gets up walks over to each of the young guys and says 'go check in'. It's THAT easy.

If we aren't playing for nothing that makes us even worse than those teams because we are playing for something and getting nothing at the end of it for TWO YEARS. Those teams are playing for nothing and have Russell, Randle, Clarkson, Embiid, Noel, Okafor and another couple of 3 picks coming in next year.

[return2glory]

Play the KIDS man! You're making us watch this GARBAGE every night, with this **** **** vets and we aren't even better than the Knicks! BOO!

Is not that easy to say play the kids and the issue is resolved. If Ainge trusted the guys he drafted, he wouldn't have to go get Lee and Amir and resign Jerebko.

Ainge got Lee to hopefully include him in a trade. Brad can't just sit him.

Also Ainge assembled this unit of mediocre players. Other than IT, everyone of our guys at this moment are average at best. Ainge didn't do coach Stevens any favors with this roster.

A lot of people here kept saying play the kids but 80% of our roster is made of of kids to some degree.

We aren't the Lakers, Sixers, Nets, etc who are playing for nothing. We made the playoffs last year and are now expected to make the playoffs again. It's Ainge's job at this point to make a big trade to improve the overall talent of this team.

Coach Pop would have a hard time coaching this team to a .500 mark.

So Ainge got those guys because he didn't trust the rookies? What?

It's super easy. He gets up and says 'Zeller and Lee your inactive today'. Mickey and Rozier you're in. When it comes to the substitutions, he gets up walks over to each of the young guys and says 'go check in'. It's THAT easy.

If we aren't playing for nothing that makes us even worse than those teams because we are playing for something and getting nothing at the end of it for TWO YEARS. Those teams are playing for nothing and have Russell, Randle, Clarkson, Embiid, Noel, Okafor and another couple of 3 picks coming in next year.

We don't know what goes on behind close doors. Ainge or management probably wants Lee in their. They didn't sign him to just have him sit. Zeller already hardly plays. Ainge hasn't made a move to clear up the roster.

The only way Mickey plays is if the team including Danny has had enough with Lee and are ready to just eat the contract. In the meanwhile Mickey has to sit behind not only Lee but also Sully, KO, and Amir.

[laploutocratie]

Brilliant coaches like Brad won't tank games. It was on Danny to build a tanking roster of last year was about tanking for a high pick.